But this is how some Southland schools are describing their lunches now provided by the government-backed School Lunch Collective.
Te Wharekura o Arowhenua student Milahn-Grace Te Awhe said she thought the food was "quite dry and flavourless".
"Today, we had butter chicken and it was pretty dry.
"The rice at the bottom was pretty waterlogged."
The government’s school lunch initiative, spearheaded by Act leader David Seymour, announced a new centralised system in which multinational catering company Compass Group, was awarded the contract for the provision of school lunches.
The School Lunch Collective last year won the contract for providing lunches to 466 schools, including Te Wharekura o Arowhenua and Ascot School from Waihōpai, Riverton’s Aparima College and Bluff School.
The Murihiku schools that qualified for the free lunch programme had their "well-liked" lunch providers, including Koha Kai and Kaans Catering, lose their contracts with the Ministry of Education, much to the dismay of students and principals.
‘I reckon that Koha Kai was better," student Kieran Coleman said.
"They had good stuff like lasagne and mac and cheese.
"This [lunch] tasted like it was made last week and it’s just been sitting ... [it] kind of just tastes dry."
Te Wharekura o Arowhenua principal Gary Davis said the school was "pretty sad" to lose the local service.
"It is a kaupapa that is very dear to us, it centres on the wellbeing of the community and unfortunately it is going to be a loss to us," he said.
The School Lunch Collective had not only missed the mark with the "taste of the school lunches" but left a sour taste with one Invercargill school for not being "culturally" astute.
One Invercargill principal, who did not wish to be named said, "Our halal children, are treated as if they were all vegetarians".
"We do have pupils who eat halal meat.
"The specials are all placed in one box, so I have to pay for somebody to actually separate (these)," the principal said.
